FairCityNews.com | Feb 24, 2010

Magic beans are used to form an advertising message along HWY 65
Springfield, MO—A local outdoor advertising company has engineered a breakthrough technology in billboard advertising: magic beans. Lamar Advertising Company has acquired the rights and patented the process for planting the mysterious seeds under an existing structure, which then produce an advertising message.

“The outdoor advertising industry has been investigating new technologies for some time now. We’ve done electronic message boards, digital displays even transit advertising and vehicle wraps, for a long time there was no new innovation until now,” said Newton Younger, a research and development manager for Lamar.

“We began looking at the past to reengineer a new take and found that magic beans could be genetically altered to produce consumer friendly messages. All we have to do is plant the beans, recite a quick spell and boom, two weeks later instant advertising,” said Younger.

Lamar has retrained their employees to care for the beans and instructed them in the planting and application of spells, which was a hard transition for at least one long-time billboard worker in the field. “I was around when we had a bucket and a brush and had to paste the paper to the frame, now alls I gots to do is say the right thing and use the right bean and we’re done,” said Hank Freuly, a billboard production specialist.

According to Lamar, most employees have successfully completed the training process, however, Hank continues to curse while administering the spell, which produces vulgar and abrasive results.

“Once we were putting up a board for a church and Hank was really nervous and frustrated and said ‘Jesus these *freakin’* beans are *freakin’* *freakin’* with me,” said Jerald Bowser a co-worker, “We went to lunch and came back to find a rather unflattering message had been produced. Something like ‘Jesus is ‘effin with you, ya bean ‘effer!’ These spells are very sensitive.”

Interesting insight below from www.domesticmuse.com.  I love that the more and more folks are really beginning to GET this whole “Digital Out-of Home” thing! – brian

Original Post

Digital Out Of Home Advertising has raced ahead rather than grow steadily, it is one of only a few industries that have made one massive leap in growth during a recession.

How can this be when it is claimed that by the time a teenager receives their high school diploma they will have been subjected to over 100,000 ads. With today’s consumers being bombarded with mass messaging at the rate of 3,000 messages per day, new and unique ways have to be created to catch the eyeballs of potential buyers.

One way may be the one-on-one marketing approach, this is where each marketing message is tailored (as much as possible) to each, individual consumer, there are two things that one-to-one marketing requires and that is a digital signage network ensuring fresh content is uploaded regularly and the content itself.

Digital signage is in reach of every business, all you need to do is attach a CD drive to a display and hire a creative team to produce the content.

Consumers want what is best for them, to the extent of if a dynamic signage campaign is created in a boardroom and it does not relate to the consumer this campaign is dead in the water!

You hear a lot about “push” and “pull” on the Internet, now digital signage is using the “push” concept, through RSS feeds and other tools that allow users to subscribe to the content they are interested in, this way it can also be measured how successful the campaign really is, but at the end of the day the campaigns are driven by the consumer.

This key difference is what is making this approach successful, allowing users to opt in for more information on the products they are interest in, not bombarded with products they no longer care for.

Dynamic advertising is as much part of our lives as is the uniforms the staff at McDonalds wear, as it is also associated with branding. Have you ever been in a restaurant and saw a display with the “specials of the day”? By the time you decide on your lunch you are being seated, this is called “wait –warping” and it works by entertaining people whilst they wait, their perceived wait time decreases and satisfaction levels increase.

This is an old fashion reason why newspapers are at the grocery checkouts, so that you pick one up and browse through the headlines whilst you are in line, before you know it you are at the checkout and five minutes has passed.

For retailers, the benefits of digital signage are more abundant and fall into three categories: head turning appeal, improved ability to target and deliver messages and improve operational efficiency, now based on these three options which will you be using? For me it is the ability to target and deliver the messages as head turning appeal will wane over time and you can always work on improving operational efficiencies.  Dynamic displays are normally the centre of attention where ever they are placed, making the delivery of messages the most important part of the loop right now.

By ANDREW DAVIS | Anchor/Reporter – WASV
Published: February 15, 2010

Missing for two weeks, Bryce Tarter’s family is hoping some new methods will help find the AASU student.  19 year old Tarter was last seen leaving the Armstrong Atlantic campus at 5am January 31st.  Bryce’s family is now getting help from the missing person group Cue Center.  That group helped organize a massive search this weekend. Officials from Cue Center say 125 people came out to help. There were also 7 canine search dogs and an ATV combing the area from the college to his home in Guyton.

There are now also digital billboards up with Bryce’s picture on them in various spots near campus.  His case has also been picked up by America’s Most Wanted.  http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=71263 and may be shown on a future television show.  Bryce’s parents are asking the public to keep a look out for his vehicle, a 2000 white Nissan frontier truck with Maine license plate 9447QD.  There’s an Atlanta Braves sticker and Falcons symbol on the rear windows.

If you have information, call the 24 hour tipline for missing persons. 910-232-1687 or cuecenter@aol.com